Friday, 05 August 2011
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Advice Welcome: To Homeschool Preschool or Not?
The other day, my 3 year old daughter sat on the floor, stuck out her bottom lip and said, "I want to go to school!". Yeah, she must get that from her dad!
Anyway, I mentioned what she said, to my husband, who asked if there were any homeschooling preschool programs, how much it would cost and how soon we could get the material.
Now, I know that SOME kids are age 3 in preschool, but I just NEVER imagined having my THREE YEAR OLD in preschool. And I've been on the fence with homeschooling, period.
Growing up, I always wanted to be home-schooled. I just wasn't a social person and would much rather have been home, by myself. My daughter, however, is a very social girl (she must get that from her dad, too). I feel she would rather go to school and be in a class of other kids. I did ask her, knowing full well that she's only 3 and, so, I took it with a grain of salt. I simply asked her if she wanted to stay home and do school, or if she wanted to go to another building, with a teacher and other kids. She said, "home school".
I have this crazy idea. I'm thinking of trying a preschool homeschooling program. That way, I can see if I can hack it. I pretty much know high school will be dang near impossible but, thankfully, there are other options for that and we also have MANY years to think about it. I think I can hack elementary stuff.
In fact, just tonight, we were going through one of these workbooks she got in the mail, with all these alphabet and number books. I was telling her the difference between lowercase and uppercase and when I asked her to point to the lowercase, she was able to do it. So, I thought, SUCCESS! Maybe I can do this!
That said, if I did homeschool my daughter, I'd have to make sure she was involved in some group activity. Me, I wouldn't have cared. But, then, I'm not socially with it. She is. So, I'd have to get her involved in something. Sports, clubs, something! I have no idea what though (though, to be honest, I don't feel like I'm the soccer mom type. Ugh).
So, I don't know. I never really wanted to put my kids in preschool. I mean, I went to preschool so it's not an awful Idea, and I'm not knocking it. I just wanted my kids to stay kids as long as possible, before going off to school. I didn't see preschool as vital. But, it may be a good way to test my homeschooling ability. Will I be patient enough? Who knows.
But, for any parent out there who DOES homeschool, or who has at one point, did you do some kind of preschool program? If so, what did you do? If not, how has your experience been with homeschooling?
Are your kids involved in any activities like sports, clubs or whatever? Just curious how other people do things, and I'd love to hear it all and get as much advice as possible. Even though, I'm not doing anything until she's 4. I think 3 is too young. Or is it? What is your opinion on that?
Any input is appreciated!
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- From: Brilliant_Innocence@xanga
- Name: Megan
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Comments (6)
Well don't you have another year before you really have to worry? I thought preschool started at 4?
Also, preschool was never a whole-day thing for me or any of my siblings/niece/nephews. It was always just a 9am - 12pm sort of deal. Since a lot of preschool focuses on socializing your child I've always preferred it. 3 hours of playing with other kids isn't that big a deal. When your kid comes home they'll take a nap and you can get right back up to teaching them your own way.
Though I'll add: I'm not saying home-preschooling is bad. In fact, a lot of studies have shown that parents who start their kids education too-early can actually cause dependancy, and other, issues later in life for the child. With your plan on at-home-preschooling with social activities inbetween sounds like a good balance.
From my perspective, of a daughter who just turned 5 and I will be homeschooling her this upcoming school year/kindergarden, you don't need to be as structured as I think you may be picturing. We have been "homeschooling" my daughter since she was around 3 as well, but it was not like "school." I started off getting her those educational coloring books, one for numbers/colors/shapes, and one for letters. It was just about introducing her to the subjects and having fun with it. You don't have to do it everyday, and I actually don't recommend that you make that a goal starting out with her so young. My daughter loved "doing school." So we did it when she asked me, or if it had been a while, I would ask her if she wanted to. I made sure it was always fun to learn, telling her it doesn't matter if she doesn't get it right, that it's good just to try. And I give her reward stickers for trying. That's how we started.
My Mom homeschooled my sisters and me. She has suggested that I use measuring cups in the bathtub to teach the concepts of parts of a whole, fractions type of things. We haven't done that. Besides that, my daughter knows how to use the computer and has for quite a long time. You can get really great learning thru computer games. Anyways, that would be my suggestion for how to start with a 3 year old. Get a simple numbers book for preschoolers and a simple letter coloring book. Start learning the computer. And read to her. It's actually really easy to teach your kids to love to learn.
I started Kindergarten when I was 4 because of the date of my birthday. I was that kid who said to my mum as well `Why am I not in school when all the other kids are! I wanna go to school!.` All the other kids were 5, and it really affected my ability to keep up. Through out elementary school, it felt as though the other kids were always grasping concepts before me, especially with math, and it made me very aware of the fact that I probably should not have been placed in school at that age.
For pre school though, and starting your own at home... I think that it could be a very great idea. A lot of the children I work with have developmental disabilities and with early intervention, they start a lot earlier than most kids, working on their social skills, their educational skills etc. and it can end up being a very rewarding situation. You have the control if you were able to start this program for yourself. Your child would not be forced to do the things that she`s not ready for yet, and won`t get left behind in the programs. You can decide what is right and wrong for her to be learning, and give her a head start, which is never a bad thing. But in the end, figure out what is best for you, and don`t let your own beliefs hold your child back TOO much.
I`m not a parent yet and I`m sure that if this time came for me, I`d be just as confused. I hope you find the right situation for your family.
From my own personal experience, I can say I started preschool at age 3. The preschool I attended, however, was just that: it was preschool. It was place preparing us for a school environment and not simply daycare for us to play and sit at until our parents got done working. I attended two years of preschool and then started kindergarten at age 5---and I have to say that with that, I was SO ready for kindergarten! I totally had the hang of the whole learning environment thing. I was mentally prepared and my anxiety about going to kindergarten was much lower. I'm also going to add that there were several learning supplements supplied by my parents whilst I was in preschool.. I wouldn't have called it exclusively homeschooling, but it included things like flash cards for reading and math. The preschool in conjunction with the supplementals from my parents resulted in my ability to read by kindergarten and first grade with no problem. I was ahead of all of my classmates for years and years after that in those areas because of the extra learning we did at home *after* preschool hours.
I have also been home schooled, but that was during 5th grade and the majority of 6th grade. In my own personal experience with that, home schooling was terrible. I wanted so badly to learn how to be social with kids my age then, (as that is a transitional period from grade school into middle school), and I became horribly depressed and withdrawn from the home schooling. When I finally did reenter public schooling, I was so socially behind and such an easy target for horrible middle school kids that I was easy pickings for prey for years after that. I myself would never home school my daughter. If she is a social girl, I believe it would do much more harm than good. That being said, supplemental learning at home after school is TOTALLY important. But not as a replacement, (in my opinion).
I was homeschooled for preschool, but like another commenter said, it wasn't hours and hours of structure. It was a lot of fun experiences that included learning. There's no need, at age 3 or 4, to have hours of structured work.
I could already read well when I went to Kindergarten, and I got the highest grades in my Kindergarten class. I went to first grade, and then I was homeschooled from second grade through high school (with a couple of middle school years in a private school and then dual enrollment in college during my junior and senior years).
I'm a huge, huge supporter of homeschooling. I had fantastic experiences being homeschooled, both at home and with other children. As for the end result? I graduated university last year summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. I can't encourage you enough to give homeschooling a try. If your daughter is interested in trying out a school type environment, you can join a homeschool group or co-op that will provide the social interaction she craves and be "school" for her. There is no need, in this day and time, for a homeschooled child not to be socialized. My sister and I did sports, took classes with other kids, and had a lot of friends as homeschoolers.
We plan on homeschooling, but in doing my research, I've read that trying to have too much structure in the preschool (or sooner) years does more harm than good. You'd think it would be good to "jumpstart" and try to start with structured learning, but children become frustrated and insecure if they feel like they aren't performing as expected. Preschool and earlier needs less structure, more imagination play and exploring. We plan on doing a "social" preschool, in a local preschool when our son turns 3 or 4 (undecided right now since we're following his cues). And then we'll do homeschool (co-op or private school hybrid) from there on. If he shows signs that he does better in an actual school setting, we'll definitely look into private schools.